A Chinese state owned newspaper polled its readers last week as to the state of relations between Beijing and Washington. Over half of its respondents answered taht they believed the US and China were entering a “Cold War”. This is important as it tells us that mistrust towards the US is not just a governmental affair, but that it is widely shared by the Chinese urban public. Clearly, suspicion is a two way street. Of course, the issues they site are the same: Taiwan, Tibet, Trade (the “big 3″). Beyond this, Americans also criticize China for its human rights record in general, its locking up of resources globally as well as its censorship of the internet. For their part, the Chinese see this criticism as Americans tools to “keep China down”.
On those last two topics, some developments over the past few days:
1. China and Australia have signed a mammoth deal that gives China access to a gargantuan new cold field in Australia – further evidence that Australia is turning into a resource base for the industrializing Middle Kingdom the way it was once for the United Kingdom.
2. China says it has raided a major source of internet hacking. Recent criticism over Google must have stung. Of course, this does nothing with regards the official hacking into the security apparatus of the Pentagon and other Washington institutions. India just announced that Chinese hackers had compromised the computers of over 200 top Indian security officials including the three armed forces chiefs and the National Security Advisor.
An emerging Cold War indeed.
